Thom Tillis Takes His Bitterness Tour to CNN and Has One Doozy of a Meltdown

If Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) wrote a book, would anybody buy it? Read it? Or even know he had written a book at all?

The lame duck senator, apparently still smarting over President Trump backing his primary challenger, has indeed written a book as he prepares to exit the Senate, and he went on CNN Tuesday night to flog it. 

Tillis sat down with Kaitlan Collins to air all of his grievances to her meager audience, with Trump and Trump's Cabinet being his main targets.

Collins ticked through some of Tillis' more acidic assessments of the Trump administration: voting confirm Pete Hegseth was the “biggest regret” of his career; having the same thoughts about Robert F. Kennedy Jr. becoming Health and Human Services secretary; saying Tulsi Gabbard “won’t be challenging anyone for president of her local Mensa chapter”; calling Kristi Noem is a “dog murderer”; and assessing Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick as being “nuttier than squirrel sh*t.”

Tillis' response? “I stand by all that,” he told Collins. “What else you got?”

(Just a heads up – there's some profanity in the excerpts read by Collins here.)

Sen. Thom Tillis on President Trump's Cabinet: — Pete Hegseth is "the biggest regret of my career." — Says he should have stopped RFK Jr. from becoming health secretary. — Tulsi Gabbard won't be challenging anyone "for president of her local Mensa chapter. " — Kristi Noem is a dog murderer — Howard Lutnick quote is "nuttier than squirrel shit." "I stand by all that."

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) October 7, 2026

Sen. Thom Tillis on President Trump's Cabinet: 

— Pete Hegseth is "the biggest regret of my career."

— Says he should have stopped RFK Jr. from becoming health secretary.

— Tulsi Gabbard won't be challenging anyone "for president of her local Mensa chapter. "

— Kristi Noem is a dog murderer

— Howard Lutnick quote is "nuttier than squirrel shit."

"I stand by all that."

When asked whether there was anyone in Trump’s Cabinet that he actually liked, Tillis said he still supported “the majority” of them, then devolved into appointing himself chief performance officer of the entire administration.

“We hired them. We made a decision to put them in there,” Tillis said. “I’m giving them their annual review. They didn’t pass. You cycle them out.”

As we used to say back in the 1980s, the guy seriously needs to take a chill pill.

This reads less like a serious author promoting a serious book and more like the bitterest of farewell tours by a man who'll never get over being smote by a more popular member of his party. It's the stuff of a middle schooler, not a sober statesman. 

Thom Tillis has just 88 days left in the Senate, and apparently intends to spend each and every one of them grinding axes and settling scores.

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